March 1998, Wrestlemania 14 – Stone Cold Steve Austin vs Shawn Michaels for the World Wrestling Entertainment Championship with Mike Tyson as Special Guest Enforcer. Even though the events prior to this match would lay down the foundations for what would come to be known as the “Attitude Era”, the following Monday Night RAW introduced us to the most raunchy, violent and entertaining era in professional wrestling history .

When I heard THQ where revitalizing their wrestling video game franchise with nostalgia, I got worried. It was a gimmick to sell their buggy video games to the older demographic who once watched the “Monday Night Wars”. The risk they took in my eyes paid off a hundred and ten percent. This has to be the best video game THQ has developed since “WWE: Here Comes The Pain” on the original Playstation 2. They brought back the edginess of the Attitude Era and filtered it perfectly for a PG audience, providing the greatest history lesson a fruity pebble fan can enjoy!

When you jump straight in, you are presented with the usual options – “Play, Attitude Era, WWE Universe, WWE Creations, Online, My WWE, etc”. Play is basically Exhibition mode from the previous games just reworded, however “King of the Ring, Special Guest Referee and I Quit” matches are back in the game – a feature they removed some time ago for unknown reasons. “Match Creator” is still available but hasn’t received any new features or updates. My favorite feature about Play is the new “Title” match feature. You can now put any title (even vacated) on the line in any match against anyone.

Gameplay this year, like last year has been completely reworked. The gameplay feels more fast paced and fluid than ever before. The new finisher system is amazing, being able to catch your opponent in the middle of the air with an RKO or Codebreaker is a joy. You can also set any amount of finishers before starting a match like in previous games. They have implemented new reverse animations from when jumping off the top rope or ropes in general which makes the game feel authentic and real, which it lacked for quite sometime. My favourite features they’ve reintroduced this year has to be, the ability to get back on the announce table and the new OMG system. With the OMG system you have to have a finisher stored to use them. OMG moments include breaking the ring with super heavyweights, spearing someone through a barricade and  superplexing someone onto the concrete floor. Last but not least, reversing has been improved and completely fixed which made me so happy I cried like Vince McMahon urinating himself at the hands of Stone Cold!

Road to Wrestlemania mode was put down like the scalded dog it is and replaced with the new and improved Attitude Era mode. In Attitude Era, you relive some of the most entertaining storylines that has ever graced our television sets with good o’l Jim Ross and Jerry “The King” Lawler re-recording some of the most famous commentary lines ever uttered. You get to pick between the “Rise of Degeneration X, Austin 3:16, Brothers of Destruction, The Great One, Mankind & Wrestlemania XV”. Once you complete all of the storylines you eventually unlock “Off Script” which is basically a bunch of matches to unlock the rest of the wrestlers, titles and attires. Once you start a storyline, each one will contain promo packages at the beginning and at the end (which can be reviewed from the Attitude Era menu alongside historical photos) to refresh your memory or simply introduce you to understand what’s going on. Each match contains “Historical Bonus Objectives” – this basically means to unlock certain wrestlers, bonus matches, arenas, attires, etc you have to recreate the match exactly how it happened on television. One example of this would be playing The Rock and hitting Mankind with a steel chair thirteen times at the Royal Rumble in an I Quit match to make him quit. You don’t have to do these objectives but with some matches you will. As storylines progress, you will be treated with a ratings timeline during the loading screen. This shows the battle for ratings between WCW and WWE during the Monday Night Wars.

As much as I loved WWE Universe mode last year it wasn’t as polished as it should have been. However this year they’ve added a serious amount of features to keep you going as you become a fantasy booker. One new feature which I loved was the ability to create your own shows and/or PPV’s instead of replacing existing ones. I wanted to do that last year and I was disappointed they didn’t include it but, I’m glad they did this year. Another great feature is the ability to put titles on the line and have them defend against anyone you want. You can now turn off Universe events if you don’t want injuries for example, or tag team formations and disbandment’s to happen. Overall they have improved the replay value and completely have it polished off to perfection.

Some of the WWE Creation modes have been improved like Create an Arena, Create a Finisher (now renamed create a special) and Create a Moveset. However Create a Wrestler and Create an Entrance are seriously outdated and need a revamp ASAP, as they contain everything from last year and the year before. Hopefully next year that will be the focus point! With Create an Arena you can now choose which titantron you want to use (you can pick between roughly eight or nine) and edit it to your desire. Plus you can now have small indie arenas or huge outdoor events like last year’s Wrestlemania! Create a Finisher now lets you make either a finisher or a signature move that can be used in Create a Moveset. It also includes a bigger list of names the commentary team say when you use said custom move. Create a Moveset now has an additional 300+ moves on top of what already is available, plus this year they didn’t remove any and they’ve reworked most of the animations.

This is the part of the review where I take THQ’s Online mode, beat it with a steel chair, raise my middle fingers and open up a can of whoop-ass on it. Sadly this year the servers have failed again and I have only been able to play online a few times. That said, hopefully they can fix it but not only that, once you get the right connection with someone you can actually have fluid matches online now. That is great and all, but not being able to connect makes it feel like you’re being chokeslammed as a consumer onto a bed of thumbtacks.

Overall I enjoyed THQ’s latest addition to the WWE franchise and it has to be the best one to date alongside Here Comes The Pain and No Mercy on the N64. I’d highly recommend any wrestling nut to pick up this straight away and lock in the anaconda vise on your gamepad, because you’re never gonna wanna put it down. Lastly I’ve got two words for ya: BUY IT!

80/100

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